


A Quirk of Nature

by Sassaphrass



Category: The Borgias (2011)
Genre: Alternate Universe- Soulmates, And the other half is all about arranged marriages, But they're not romantic Soulmates, Micheletto is Cesare's Soulmate, Other, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, That gets confusing when half the population is illiterate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-09
Updated: 2015-06-09
Packaged: 2018-04-03 13:51:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4103269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sassaphrass/pseuds/Sassaphrass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The marks are a simple curiosity of humanity. Not everyone puts much stock in them, and not everyone agrees on what they mean. Some say they guide you to your truest love. </p>
<p>Lucrezia Borgia believes this is the case. </p>
<p>Cesare does not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Quirk of Nature

The marks have always been writ upon humanity's skin. What exactly they signify has never been decided upon though. To the upper classes they are curiosities, appearing as they do only on some people, infinitely varied in form, often an image but sometimes a word or a phrase. Most agree that the mark seems to symbolize or indicate some specific person who the bearer of the mark will one day meet, though often that the mark represents this individual will not be immediately clear.

 

Lucrezia's mark is a spray of yellow flowers that grow up from her breastbone across to her left shoulder.

 

Juan's skin is bare.

 

 

Cesare is the only one with a mark immediately understandable, a phrase twinned round his bicep in a well-formed, if seemingly hesitant script: “I stand in awe your eminence”

 

He's always looked at in in distaste, since it seems to indicate that the he is fated not just for a Bishopric but for the Cardinalsy as well and will no doubt remain one till death.

 

He knows what the masses say about the marks, that they lead you to the person who will matter the most, who will best know you. Who will best love you, but who, without the mark, might be overlooked.

 

He knows Lucrezia sighs over such stories. Tales of lovers finding each other through their marks. Tragedies where the mark's meaning becomes clear too late and they are parted forever.

 

Cesare has no time for such nonsense. He knows from observation of the world around him that such marks do not make for perfect love stories. His mother bears a mark for his father, while his father has none. He's heard of pimps with marks for one of their whores, and holy monks which lead to someone with whom they spend their life in quiet contemplation of the divine.

 

One thing all agree on- everyone who has a mark will one day meet the one their mark indicates. Whether or not they see that person for who they are is not guaranteed.

 

Romantic love may often accompany the marks but the marks do not guarantee it.

 

Who would be concerned with such useless frivolity anyway?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michelletto's mark is a dagger, which has always pleased him, since it would seem that his other half is a) a man and b) a man whom Micheletto would respect, and if not a man than at least a woman he could respect.

 

Micheletto keeps his eye out for the man who bears the dagger in question but other than that does not think on the matter.

 

He is pleased when he does meet the man. The shining dagger in his hand identical to the one on his chest the sharpened tip placed as though about to pierce his heart.. Micheletto has the dagger before and this is it- real and pointed at his throat. He wants to smile but doesn't.

 

The man doesn't seem to recognize him. Perhaps his mark is not so obvious or he has missed the sign it tries to show him. Or perhaps he has no mark, and Micheletto's other half is complete in and of himself.

 

Micheletto doesn't know. Micheletto doesn't care. Micheletto would follow this man without the mark but with it? With it he will do anything to prove his loyalty.

 

 

 

 

 

Cesare lies next to Ursula and she trails a finger over the mark on his arm, and smiles. He smiles back. He thinks he might die from the love of her. She has a mark on her foot, but it's an unknown thing. Unknowable. Only the poor go running after such nonsense.

 

 

 

 

 

Augustino eyes the dagger of Micheletto's chest. There's something different about his childhood friend. Foolish thought, it's been years- everything is different. Augustino has a mark too, but who it points to has not yet been revealed. He used to wonder if it would turn out to be Micheletto all along but he doesn't think so anymore. That dagger could never be his.

 

But, Micheletto was Augustino's, in a strange way. Augustino couldn't help his satisfaction in that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cesare knows that his sister has found the one her mark had pointed her too when she speaks sadly of her Narcissus, and his gaze can't help linger on the spray of yellow flowers at her breast. Narcissus plants bared proudly by her gown.

 

It's become something of a fashion, since Lucrezia's return, for ladies to have flowers painted across their breasts when they wear the low cut evening fashions.

 

His own words remain a mystery, and he tells himself that has nothing to do with his help in Lucrezia's tryst or his rage when her sweet stupid lover is found murdered.

 

 

 

When they throw Juan into the river, Micheletto says the words. “I stand in awe your eminence.”

 

And Cesare is satisfied.

 

Of course it was Micheletto all along.

 

Micheletto has been his other half for years. Not his better half, but one no better and no worse than Cesare himself.

 

 

Nothing need change with this revelation Cesare thinks and nothing does.

**Author's Note:**

> Just trying to picture how this trope would work in Renaissance Italy. I just wanted it to be something that was complicated and like actually useful for identifying a person? And how it would be interpreted in a society that's way less obsessed with romantic love. 
> 
> I dunno. 
> 
> Comments? Please?


End file.
